What is “Staking”?

Staking is a financial product where you deposit cryptocurrency to get interest in return. It is similar to depositing money in the bank and gaining interest. Staking is a common financial product you can find in DeFi (Decentralized Finance), which uses blockchain and cryptocurrency.

The source of interest in staking depends on the characteristics of the cryptocurrency and the company’s asset management method. Mostly, you gain a certain percentage of the fee when people deal cryptocurrency. The companies run a loan product with the deposited cryptocurrency, and they sometimes allocate a certain portion of the profit from it.

You can also find staking in Marblex. They first published a game token staking service last August of 2022, and on Jan. 9, 2023, they added the game token of KOF Arena, FCT. Prior to that, on Dec. 28, 2022, they added an MBXL staking service, which is the bridge token of the Marblex ecosystem.

The profit from Marblex staking is distributed from the funds Marblex runs. Through the staking service, you can raise the market price of the token by decreasing the amount of the tokens circulating in the market, and you can also attract more demand from those who want to purchase the token for staking interest purposes. If the token’s value rises, the gamers who mine tokens can gain more profit, and this can lead to more users and expand the ecosystem. That’s why Marblex rewards interest for staking users who contribute to this system.

Comparison between MBXL staking and FCT staking

The characteristics of MBXL staking

MBXL staking is an investing activity where you deposit MBXL tokens to gain interest. The service first opened on Dec. 28, 2022, and you can use it from your MBX wallet.

There is a cap to the APR in MBXL staking. This is to prevent having a small number of people with large amounts of capital monopolizing the reward. The maximum APR is 100%, and until Jan. 23, 2023, the cap is upped to 500%.

You can use 10 staking accounts per wallet in MBXL staking. One account is used per one staking deposit. To make an 11th deposit, you have to withdraw from one of the ten accounts to make space. The minimum amount you can deposit is 1 MBXL, and you can deposit up to 50,000 MBXL per account.

There is a deposit fee, and the fee varies by the amount you deposit. If you deposit less than 500 MBXL, there’s a 1.2% fee. From 500-25,000 MBXL, it’s 0.8%, and for more than 25,000 MBXL, it’s 0.5%. For example, to deposit 2,000 MBXL, you need to pay 16 MBXL, which is a 0.8% fee, and the total amount you need is 2,016 MBXL.

The reward of MBXL staking is distributed with MBXL tokens. The reward can be collected every five days from the first deposit date. To collect the reward, you have to press the collect button on the staking page. When you do, the reward moves directly into your wallet, and you can exchange it for other tokens right away or make an additional deposit.

You can withdraw your MBXL whenever you want, but there’s a withdrawal fee depending on the deposit period. If you deposited for less than 5 days, there’s an 8% fee. Afterward, depending on the period, the fee lessens to 4%, 2%, and 1%, and if you keep your deposit for over 42 days, you can withdraw without any fee. The amount you withdraw enters your wallet immediately. You can request to withdraw by account. When you do, the full amount of your account is withdrawn, and you cannot withdraw a portion of the account.

If you keep your deposit for a long time, you can gain an extra reward. The extra reward for maintaining the deposit for 90 days is 1% of the deposit amount. The ratio of the extra reward rises the longer you keep the deposit, and if you keep it for more than 2 years, you can gain a 7% extra reward. This extra reward can be collected after 5 days of withdrawal.

The characteristics of FCT staking

FCT staking is a type of game token staking, and you can gain interest profit by depositing FCT. Game token staking is run by season. The third season begins on Jan. 9, 2023, and ends on Mar. 16, 2023. 

There are two periods in FCT staking — the pre-deposit period and the eight-week regular season period. If you deposit during the pre-deposit period, there’s a smaller deposit fee (3%) compared to the regular season period. Also, if you keep the deposited amount during this period until the end of the season, you can gain an extra reward. However, there’s a longer withdrawal limit to the funds deposited during the pre-deposit period than when you deposited during the regular season.

During the regular season, you can deposit FCT whenever you want, and you can increase the deposited funds freely. The minimum amount you can deposit is 2 FCT, and 5% of the funds are deducted as a fee. For example, if you deposit 100 FCT, 5 FCT is deducted as a fee, and 95 FCT is deposited.

The deposited funds can be withdrawn after 7 days of the last deposit date. If you deposited once on Jan. 10, and again on Jan. 20, you can withdraw your funds after Jan. 27. The amount you deposited during the pre-deposit period can be withdrawn 7 days after the regular season begins. When you withdraw, you must withdraw the entire amount, and you cannot withdraw a portion of it.

The reward for staking is paid in MBXL tokens instead of FCT. The reward can be collected when you withdraw your FCT. When you withdraw, there is no extra fee, and it is immediately withdrawn on request.

How to stake MBXL

How to stake FCT

Beware of the fund value change of the deposited principal

While you collect interest by staking MBXL or FCT, the value of MBX keeps changing. If the value of MBX drops, the value of the deposited token also drops. On the other hand, if the value of MBX rises, the value of the deposited amount and the MBXL tokens you gain as interest also rises.

When you deposit in FCT staking, you also have to focus on the FCT/MBXL exchange ratio as well as the MBX value. FCT must be exchanged into MBXL before exchanging it into MBX, and the amount of MBX you can gain depends on the FCT/MBXL exchange ratio. If the MBX value is the same but the FCT value drops and the FCT/MBXL exchange ratio goes down, the value of your deposit in MBXL staking doesn’t change but the value of your deposit in FCT staking drops.

It is difficult to deal with rapid value changes of MBX when you stake. You can withdraw your deposit in MBXL staking whenever you want, but if you have deposited for a short period of time, you have to pay a fee. There is no withdrawal fee for FCT staking, but as there’s a minimum deposit period, you may not be able to withdraw. For example, if the value of MBX rises drastically, so you want to exchange your FCT for MBX to sell, if it has been less than 7 days since you deposited, you cannot do it.